Amazing Shoes | c. 1954
Posts tagged shoes.
Steven Arpad | c. 1939
Are you kidding me with this? love.
Slippers | c. 1895 - 1905
This pair of dainty slippers features skillfully wrought and subtly hued pastel ribbonwork embroidery, nicely complimented by three-dimensional flowers at the throat. A flirtatious note is added by the curvaceous Louis heel and the flesh-baring d’Orsay cut, which was originally popularized as a men’s style by French amateur artist and dandy Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, Count d’Orsay (1801–1852). The Met
Chopines | c. 1590-1610 | Italy
The chopine was a tall clog worn in primarily in Venice from the 15th to the early 17th centuries. While most examples are between three and five inches tall, some specimens of over a foot tall survive. Historical accounts testify to the necessity of the assistance of a pair of ladies maids to walk in the more extreme examples. As can be appreciated from the elaborate and fragile materials, the purpose of the chopine was as much to elevate the lady’s sartorial reputation as to elevate her skirt from the dirt of the streets and to increase her physical prominence. While this single chopine is very typical of the form in design and decoration, the blue color is less commonly seen than red or green. An additional feature of note also found on many other surviving examples is the leather sock lining with incised pattern of concentric squares.
House of Worth | c. 1893 
By the last quarter of the 19th century, shoes specifically matched to a particular evening dress became an increasingly common phenomenon. While white shoes could be economically dyed to match a special dress, the wealthiest clients would have shoes specifically made to coordinate. This pair of slippers is accompanied in the collection by a matching evening dress, by the renowned House of Worth. The decision to focus all the elaborate decoration on the bow is inventive for this period, and one mark of the high quality.
| c. 1890 |
This is a stunning pair of unusually and heavily beaded Victorian fancy white plonget leather wedding shoes. Made by “Rosenthals’s” shoes (tags on both shoes in black and gold) which was a famous maker in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles at the time. There’s a facsimile on the tag as their trademark- of a winged Griffin with a Victorian woman’s head, holding a Victorian button up shoe. “Opal” micro beads heavily decorate oval hand cut and hand sewn “flower” cutouts- which also have round, faceted jet hand cut beads. There’s a triple silk-satin “angel wing” row of bows. These are all surrounded by micro pink, iridescent opal beads and a few rows of black beads in the centers. There is very fine silk (taffeta weave) ties that tie over the foot, leather inners and a fabulous curvy “Louis” spool heel. The ties appear original or at least era original.
